Will Prentice, who immigrated to Canada from England thirty years ago, realizes that sometimes you have to leave home to find it. The week after his wife asks him for a divorce, Will returns to England to attend his mother’s funeral. Embarking on a driving tour of the English countryside, in part on a quest to unravel a secret from his mother’s past, in part trying to see how much of England he remembers, and where he belongs, he begins to reexamine his life back home in Canada. His driving companion is his uncle’s grandson, Fred, a recent Cambridge graduate at a crossroads in his life who is interested in Canadian Studies.

 

As Fred drives Will through various English boroughs, Will talks him through a journey across Canada, from the fishing villages of Labrador to the rainy coasts of British Columbia, reawakening Fred’s imagination and defining the heart of his own passion. Eric Wright’s portrait of two countries, Britain and Canada, supposedly similar but literally an ocean apart, asserts Canada’s uniqueness and reminds us that home is not only geography and landscape, but also a state of mind. Finding Home is a sensitive and optimistic look at Will’s search for a new beginning after work and kids that will resonate with anyone who has ever had to face an uncertain future.

Best known as a writer of award-winning detective fiction, including the Charlie Salter mysteries, Eric Wright has also written a comic novel (Moodies Tale) and Always Give a Penny to a Blind Man, his 1999 memoir which was nominated for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. (The first chapter of that memoir first appeared in The New Yorker.) Eric helped to set up and was the first director of the publishing program at Ryerson University. He lives in Toronto.

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“An easy read from an engaging writer.”

NOW Magazine

“Wright keeps things entertaining with his easily readable style and the characters’ constant movement.”

Quill and Quire

“Well-crafted and lean … Eric Wright has provided insight into the little-observed experience of the modern Canadian Brit.”

The Gleaner

“The hallmark of Wright’s craftsmanship is his ability to draw you into his writing with a sense of place, and focus the colour and the pace of the setting in which his characters develop. The rhythm of his artistry makes you feel that an Eric Wright story is a plce where you want to be, a feeling you want to experience and a story you wish to share … a book to read, set aside, and savour again. I loved it.”

Hamilton Spectator

“An engrossing and insightful tale.”

Toronto Life

“Wright is a natural storyteller.”

The Toronto Star

“A delight, filled as it is with wise and witty assessments if Canada, its food, accents, and customs. Eric Wright is a born storyteller with the ability to sum it all up in a single sentence.”

The Sun Times

“Well-crafted and lean … Eric Wright has provided insight into the little-observed experience of the modern Canadian Brit.”

The Globe and Mail

“Eric Wright’s takes on what makes up Canada … are in turns clever, witty, biting and warm … I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mr. Wright’s craftsmanship has never been better. Like all great writers, his words disappear and allow us to slip into the story.”

Open Book Toronto

“A most enjoyable read, part mystery, part travelogue, full of delightful, well-developed characters.”

The Daily Bulletin